Good news so far for Michigan’s fruit crops after too-early flowering

An early spring might sound like a good thing to you and me. An early spring to a Michigan fruit grower is a nightmare. So far, the fruit growers’ nightmares are not coming true.

An extremely warm February and a warmer-than-normal March developed Michigan’s fruit buds very early. The early bud development made Michigan’s fruit crop vulnerable to frost damage. The bud and fruit blossom development was even earlier than the extremely warm spring in 2012.

Nick Schweitzer of Schweitzer Orchards says his family has been growing apples just north of Grand Rapids since 1976. Fruit growers actually prefer a chilly spring which delays the development of buds and blossoms. If the blossoms can be delayed until May there is very little chance a hard frost or freeze will wipe out their apple crop.

So Schweitzer was very worried when the family’s apple orchards were in full bloom this past April. In the growers’ circle, they were thinking there was no way to avoid a crop-killing frost.

The warm weather of winter continued into April with just a few light frosts. The Michigan fruit crop was spared.

Now the early blossoms are translating to early-maturing fruit crops, and the fruit crops are bigger than normal. Amy Irish-Brown, Valent USA Sustainability Specialist, estimates Michigan will produce 26 million to 28 million bushels of apples this year. This amount is above average but less than the 30 million bushels harvested in both of the last two years. Brown says it’s rare for the apple crop to be large three years in a row.

Brown and Schweitzer both agree Michigan’s apples will be picked 10 to 15 days ahead of normal.

In fact, Brown advises us to start looking for our favorite Michigan fruits now since the maturity of most fruits is ahead of schedule. She says peaches are being harvested now. If you normally get your Michigan peaches in the last part of July or early August, you better look for them now.

The sweet cherry harvest started in southwest Michigan 10 days early and is complete. The Traverse City area cherries started being harvested this week. Brown says the official estimate of the Traverse area cherries is for 90 million pounds to be harvested. There were 67 million pounds harvested last year in northwest Lower Michigan. West-Central Michigan will harvest 61 million pounds and Southwest Michigan harvested 18 million pounds. That’s a lot of cherries.

Because of the “non-winter” winter, early spring and above normal temperatures in June, the Michigan blueberry crop has started to be harvested.

Strawberries also ripened very fast due to the warm spring and the hot dome of air over us right at June harvest time according to Irish-Brown.

The apple harvest will start early at Schweitzer Orchards near Sparta. Brown advises buyers to look for the label that says “Grown in Michigan.” Brown suggests there are two newer apple varieties everyone should try. The Ambrosia apple is a yellow apple with a reddish blush. It’s a crisp, sweet apple with a hint of tartness, and should ripen in late September. Evercrisp is an apple variety that is a cross between a Honeycrisp and a Fuji apple. It’s a very late ripening apple and stores well for months in the refrigerator. Look for Evercrisp in stores and farmers’ markets just before Halloween.

There should be plenty of Michigan fruit this year if Mother Nature doesn’t get angry. Growers don’t count their harvest until it’s done because severe weather can change the condition of the crop in a hurry. Schweitzer says fruit growers worry about large hail and severe thunderstorm wind gusts until the harvest is complete.